Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I can definitely say that the shrill hysteria of the Greens is not going to fix the housing crisis, but supply will, and that is our sole focus. We are focused on supply because supply has been declining in this country. We have a constrained pool of housing and an increasing number of people who are seeking homeownership, and we just do not have enough homes for those people. So the answer is actually to build, and to reduce and address the barriers to building, more homes across this country—in the regions, in the cities and in our metropolitan areas.

Unlike the Greens political party, we are not here to carve up this country and divide it. We have a mission, and our mission is to address the crisis of homeownership right throughout this nation—a crisis that was born in the decade of neglect under the Liberal Party. They had nine years, nearly a decade, to fix this problem, and what did they do? They simply vacated the space. In fact, the number of dwellings that were built peaked in 2016, and they've been declining ever since. The Liberal Party could have pulled the handbrake. They could have sat down with the state governments and actually worked towards finding a solution, but instead they walked away. They washed their hands of the problem. They pointed to the states and they said, 'It's your problem; you deal with it.'

And when we came to power we found that, in the aftermath of the pandemic, housing occupancy patterns have changed. People are choosing to live in single-occupancy homes and, as a result, we actually need more homes.

There's only one solution to all of this. When you cut through all the noise and the hysteria and the rage—or the faux rage, or whatever it is—and the finger-pointing, the only answer is supply, and that is what the Albanese Labor government is focused on. Indeed, we are pumping in $25 billion over the next 10 years to improve housing in this country. It is the sole focus because we understand housing is foundational. It is foundational to security, and security is foundational to prosperity. You cannot prosper in life, you cannot lay down roots and you cannot grow and thrive unless you have a roof over your head.

Rents, we understand, are increasingly eating up disposable income. Many Australians are looking to buy. In the 12 months to January 2024, rents on apartments increased in Melbourne by 15 per cent, in Armadale by 15 per cent, Prahran by 21 per cent and in South Yarra by 22 per cent.

According to the Grattan Institute's 2022 The great Australian nightmare report, between 1981 and 2021 home ownership rates for 25- to 34-year-olds in the two lowest quintiles by household income, meaning these were lower-income earners, fell from 57 per cent to 28 per cent. Similarly for 45- to 54-year-olds in the same two quintiles, meaning lower-income earners, home ownership rates also declined from 71 per cent to 53 per cent. From the same report, home ownership is also falling amongst poorer, older Australians. Among the poorest 40 per cent of 45- to 54-year-olds, just 53 per cent own their homes today, down from 71 per cent four decades ago.

In the past few decades, house prices have skyrocketed. While average full-time earnings have doubled over the past half-century, house prices have quadrupled. Consequently, it takes much longer today to save for a deposit. That's a fact. In the early 1990s it would take the average Australian about seven years to save a 20 per cent deposit for a typical dwelling. Now it takes almost 12 years. We want to make home ownership easier, we want to make it a reality and we have the tools to do so.

The Help to Buy scheme is a plank in the Albanese government's raft of reforms aimed at addressing housing affordability. It directly addresses the time it takes to save for a deposit and the high cost of repayments as a proportion of your income. Help to Buy could make home ownership a reality with as little as a two per cent deposit. As a shared equity scheme, Help to Buy will bring home ownership back into reach for 40,000 Australian households—10,000 per year over the next four years.

The government will support eligible homebuyers with an equity contribution of up to 40 per cent for new homes and 30 per cent for existing homes which are moderately priced. In Higgins that means any home below $850,000. Home owners will need a minimum of a two per cent deposit to participate in the scheme, greatly reducing the burden of scrimping and saving. And you will have lower ongoing mortgage repayments. The financial risks and benefits are shared between the home owner and the Commonwealth.

To be clear, the government will not be a co-owner of the property. Rather, the government will have a second mortgage over the property. This means that home buyers will not have to pay rent or interest to the government. Rather, the government will take its share of the profits when the home is sold. In other words, if the government contributes 30 per cent of the purchase price, it will receive 30 per cent of the sale price when the house is sold. Together, these measures will provide long-term relief.

So who can apply? You have to be an Australian citizen who is at least 18 years of age, yearly income must be $90,000 or less for individuals or $120,000 or less for couples, so we are targeting this towards people on the lower- and middle-income ends of the spectrum. This cap is lower than the Home Guarantee Scheme, as it is designed to support that cohort of people. You must live in the purchased home and you must not currently own any other land or property in Australia or overseas, but it certainly doesn't have to be your first home.

While the required minimum is a two per cent deposit of the home price, the purchaser must be able to finance the remainder of the loan. You also have to prove that you can pay all the associated upfront costs, which are considerable and are barriers to home ownership. They include stamp duty, which is enacted by the states, along with legal fees and bank fees. You will also be responsible for ongoing costs associated with the property such as rates, strata and electricity bills.

Each state's allocation will be available to eligible residents on a first come, first served basis, so you have to apply quickly. You've got to get your ducks in order and get your financing sorted out. Details such as whether participants are able to renovate their homes—they can—and the situation when a home is sold are already in place.

At National Cabinet in August last year all states agreed to progress Help to Buy so that the scheme can run nationally. In other words, the states are ready and waiting. They are ready to press the go button on this, provided that we get support in the parliament. Right now, the Greens have formed yet another unholy alliance with the coalition, blocking this scheme from coming into practice while Australians are living in tent cities, while we have young people desperate for home ownership, who are spinning their wheels renting. This kind of behaviour is actually unconscionable.

Housing ministers from across the country have recommitted to this agreement. This means that the only potential barriers to the passage of the scheme sit on the crossbench and among the Libs. We on this side of the House have rejected the divisive federal-state antics that were the signature of the wasted decade under the Liberals because the scale of the problem is too great.

Help to Buy is one aspect of the Albanese government's comprehensive response to the housing affordability crisis. Ours is a multipronged approach that addresses the huge challenges facing renters in finding accommodation and the high cost of rents, shortages of social housing as well as barriers to homeownership. Our broad housing agenda is squarely focused on supply, and it includes a plethora of measures.

The Housing Australia Future Fund, a $10 billion fund aimed at building 30,000 social and affordable homes, has now been stood up. Note, however, that this was delayed by six months due to, again, another unholy alliance between the Liberals and the Greens. It seems that the two parties of the extremes have merged and are basically now a barrier to homeownership and home supply in this country.

The National Housing Accord commits us, in partnership with the states and industry, including super funds and construction, to build a million homes over five years. We have a new national target to build 1.2 million well-located homes. We've launched the $3 billion New Homes Bonus and the $500 million Housing Support Program There's the $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator to deliver around 4,000 new social homes across Australia. This includes a new build of social, affordable and market rentals in Bangs Street, Prahran, in my electorate, which I have visited with Premier Jacinta Allan and our housing minister, Julie Collins. There were fantastic homes—new, warm, comfortable, safe.

An investment of an additional $1 billion in the National Housing Infrastructure Facility has been made to support more homes. Up to $575 million in funding has already been unlocked, and homes are being built with this money. We've increased the maximum rate of Commonwealth rent assistance by 15 per cent, the largest increase in more than 30 years. I could go on and on because there are another six or seven measures we have included. One, notably, is that we expanded the Home Guarantee Scheme, which has already helped 100,000 people across Australia into homeownership, and we relaxed some of the eligibility criteria around the scheme, allowing parents, relatives or legal guardians to assist with the purchase of homes.

The housing crisis will take time to solve, and building more homes is the only answer to declining affordability and rising rents. Increasing supply means more construction workers, materials, industry expertise and cutting red tape. Rather than vilifying property developers, we recognise that property developers are absolutely needed to address this crisis, because this is of a scale that governments cannot spend their way through. Twenty-five billion dollars is a lot of money, but we do need the private sector in order to build those apartments as quickly as possible, and we do need the states to step up and cut the red tape so that we can get these homes built fast.

Workforce is a pressing issue, and that's where our free TAFE courses for urgent skills, like construction, kick in. I need young people who may be looking for career options to check out the offerings at TAFE. We are fortunate to have Holmesglen TAFE on our doorstep, a fantastic place of learning linked to career pathways in well-paid, secure jobs.

By directly addressing the problems of saving for a deposit and the cost of repayments, the Help to Buy scheme will be life-changing for thousands of Australians who have been locked out of the security and stability of homeownership. We are in a housing emergency, and I know one thing about managing emergencies: you don't just do one thing; you do everything. You come at the problem from multiple directions to rescue the patient. Right now we are in a housing crisis, and our multipronged strategy, which is broad based and comes at this problem from every angle, addressing skills, supply chain, red tape and capital, is the way to solve the problem, not by carving up Australia and dividing it and pitting one generation against the other. I commend this bill to the House.

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